


i didn't know we were fighting.

by Zyzzyva



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: (holding george as a king) i just think he’s neat, Angst, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sapnap-centric (Video Blogging RPF), aka i turn george’s complete inability to rp into a legitimate character trait, if you can’t cuddle the homies who can you cuddle, sapnap & george deserve to have their own unique characters outside of dream send tweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28750332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zyzzyva/pseuds/Zyzzyva
Summary: sapnap is angry, and george should be too.
Relationships: (lowkey), Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 177





	i didn't know we were fighting.

**Author's Note:**

> shoutout to matt for showing me the vods of sapnap upset over dream saying he doesn’t care about them, they are solely to blame for this. ily!
> 
> the title comes from ghostbur.

sapnap is always angry, and george is always calm.

when they were little and a group of four and they weren’t fighting for their lives and instead for fun, dream used to joke that sapnap carried george’s emotions for him. at the time, sapnap had loudly proclaimed he always would, and george pushed him into a river, and he laughed.

it doesn’t seem so funny now.

* * *

sapnap meets george when they’re eleven. they team together soon after they figure out they’re both alone, sapnap as fierce as george is clever. soon after, they meet bad, who takes them in with great patience and even greater kindness, and they form a great team.

dream shakes things up. within days he and george have become attached at the hip, complimenting each other in ways sapnap never has. he’s always too overwhelming, too loud, too _much_ for anyone. everyone except for george.

at first it hurts. sapnap sees dream stealing his friend, and sapnap has never been more incensed. he snaps at dream and at everyone, and even when bad tries to get them to make up he refuses.

it isn’t until they’re stuck in a cave with zombies threatening to break down dirt walls that they talk about it, that sapnap cries about it, and dream does too, and george doesn’t.

after that sapnap thinks they’ll be inseparable, is sure they’ll be a team forever.

* * *

when the war first starts, he’s just there to have fun. it seems trivial, the idea of fighting over fucking music discs against a bunch of kids, defending a fucking drug van, and he doesn’t much care. fighting is fun and fire even more so and he gets to team alongside his best friends.

maybe eret defecting to their side should be a sign it’s important, but even that doesn’t rattle his confidence that this is just a _game,_ and it’s not his fault everyone else is taking this so seriously.

the pet war isn’t as fun. much as everyone jokes about it he doesn’t _like_ killing animals, but bad has always said he’s too hotheaded and too stubborn and he has to prove a _point_.

so he fights, and he wins, and he’s not even sure why.

“no one is forcing you,” george says, leaning back against him as they fish, and sapnap laughs.

“i am.”

and george shrugs, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

sapnap doesn’t care about elections. they’re not wars, they’re not interesting, and he thinks he’ll die if he has to hear one more slick-tongued politician monologue about governments.

george runs alongside quackity. they get along better than he expects, the three of them becoming friends quickly.

all the same, he can’t understand why george gets involved, because now sapnap has to as well.

“you don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” george says, failing to tie a tie for the fifth time. sapnap leans against the wall and laughs.

“i do.”

and george shrugs, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

sapnap hasn’t talked to dream in a while. he’s always been busy with running the server, but now there’s something more there. sapnap has never had a hard time reading him even behind his mask, but now for the first time he’s not sure what his friend is doing behind the scenes.

he feels unbalanced without him. george seems so much quieter than before, the easy banter that used to flow between them missing without their third part. they don’t talk much anymore. for the first time ever, he feels they’re disjointed, not able to move together the same way they did before.

bad, too, is different. he’s formed his own faction, with sam and skeppy and ant, and sapnap doesn’t get to see him much anymore. when he does, there’s a gleam in his eyes that wasn’t there before and screams _run run run_.

he confides in quackity and karl. he never expected to grow as close to them as he has, but it’s a welcome reprieve from old grievances. they meet on the roof of the white house, and he talks of george, and quackity talks of schlatt, and karl talks of l’manburg.

“you don’t need to stay by dream’s side, not if you don’t want to,” quackity tells him one night, dangling his feet over the edge of the roof. karl nods. sapnap laughs.

“i do.”

and quackity shrugs, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

and in the end, he does. he fights for manburg, even though he doesn’t care that much. it’s not fun anymore.

dream doesn’t ask him if he wants to fight by his side, he just tells him what to do, and for the first time since they met it pisses him off.

and for the first time since they were kids, they argue. sapnap laughs in his face.

“don’t give me orders,” he snarls, “when you didn’t even ask me if i was going to follow you.”

dream stares at him for a long, long moment. “don’t you?”

his voice is very, very quiet. sapnap has never been scared of dream before. his heart stutters.

sapnap first drew the face when they were little. dream didn’t even take off his mask when they were sleeping, and sapnap wasn’t so cruel he’d remove it, but he was still so angry at dream for stealing his friend and he wanted to get back at him.  
so he took a piece of charcoal and carved a smiley face on the empty white mask. when dream woke bad laughed at him, and dream was _so angry_ , but he kept it in the end.

it has never, ever been creepy before. sapnap hates him.

sapnap looks to george for help. george doesn’t care.

“don’t you?” dream asks again, and sapnap sighs.

“i do.”

and dream shrugs, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

“i don’t care about anything but the discs,” dream says, and sapnap’s heart _stops._

he should’ve known.

dream isn’t his friend anymore, hasn’t been his friend for so long.

he doesn’t know when it changed, when dream became someone who wasn’t _his_ anymore, when he became someone sapnap doesn’t like, when he became some sort of monster sapnap hates, but it _hurts._

he runs to george. he’s building a house with quackity, enjoying the freedom of el rapids, and sapnap doesn’t want to ruin his fun but he has to.

he bursts in, can’t help but yell. george seems surprised enough, asking for clarification, but after a few moments he quietly goes back to building. even quackity is incensed, talking a mile a minute and immediately taking sapnap’s side, but in the meantime george has snuck away and is rifling through a chest.

“it’s us three against the world,” sapnapp says, and he doesn’t even mean dream, and it feels wrong.

“aren’t you angry?” quackity exclaims when he notices george, grabbing his arm. george pulls away and continues his search.

sapnap laughs, bitter, and none of this is funny. “he never is.”

“that’s not true,” george says petulantly, but there’s nothing in his voice. sapnap huffs.

“you don’t care, do you?”

“i do.”

and sapnap shrugs, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

george loses his first life to technoblade, and sapnap can’t protect him. he isn’t there, off with quackity and karl when it happens.

**_georgenotfound was slain by technoblade using [orphan obliterator]_ **

he freezes, mind shuttering closed. after a few seconds, he clues back in. karl is on one side, hand on his arm, and quackity is on the other, holding his hand. he’s breathing hard.

“i need to go,” he says, standing. “i need to make sure he’s ok.” they nod, and he runs.

he runs to the castle, first, and george isn’t there. dream is, tells him george is fine, tells him not to bother. sapnap snaps at him, tells him to fuck off. respawns are painful, and sapnap isn’t going to let him go through that alone.

george is in bed in el rapids, curled up under a pile of blankets. sapnap almost doesn’t see him, almost runs past his room, but he always finds him.

sapnap pulls his friend into his arms easily, the way he always has, and george clings onto him.

all of george’s emotion has always hidden in his gestures.

they stay like that for a while, george with his arms around his neck and his head buried in his shoulder. sapnap holds tight on his t-shirt, curls a hand in his hair. he chokes back a few tears.

he should’ve _been there._

eventually, george pulls back. he sighs, fixes his hair, pulls the blankets closer around him.

sapnap rubs a hand over his face. he wishes he could read him like he used to. he can’t read any of them now.

“i’ll always be there, you know that, right?” he asks. it’s a lie. he can’t promise anything. and george knows that, but he still says,

“i do.”

and george shrugs, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

sapnap isn’t sure why, but he’s yelling in george’s face. george’s king cape lays on the floor of the throne room next to them, and he steps on it as he grabs george’s shirt.

dream and eret stand beside them, dream blank and eret worried and sapnap doesn’t care.

he should be angry at dream. he should. it’s not george’s fault he’s been dethroned, but he can’t help but be angry at the both of them.

is he really the only one who cares about their friendship? dream doesn’t care, and maybe he’s never cared, and he isn’t sure whether george is even _able_ , and it feels like _shit_.

dream asks george if he wants to stay king, and he doesn’t get angry. he simply asks dream.

sapnap can hear the slimy manipulation in his friend’s voice, and he wants to punch the man in his face. but george just looks him in the face and shrugs and doesn’t care and sapnap hates it.

quackity fights for them and sapnap wants to cry. finally, finally, someone is on his side. quackity squeezes his hand, minutely, before pulling away.

dream doesn’t back down, and george doesn’t fight him. the crown is pulled unceremoniously from his hair and placed in eret’s and sapnap can tell eret doesn’t see it as a victory. he’s not sure any of them do.

the cape is left on the ground and they go home. it’s not worth a physical fight, not when george doesn’t care, much as sapnap wants to spear his friend through the stomach.

george settles next to sapnap on the couch, takes off his goggles, and sighs. he leans into sapnap’s side. they sit quietly for a few long moments before sapnap can’t help but ask:

“do you actually even want to be king?” sapnap can’t read him anymore. he never would’ve had to ask this at the beginning. it hurts. george pulls away.

“i do.”

and sapnap shrugs, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

dream is going to destroy l’manburg.

sapnap has been shaking all day. he’s not sure where george is and he misses him, because george can always calm him down and he can barely hold his sword steady. karl squeezes his shoulder and he jumps.

he’s going to talk to tommy before the destruction today.

there’s been a change in the kid. something happened while he was in exile, and part of sapnap hopes he never, ever finds out what it was. he doesn’t want to know what his friend has done.

tommy has found mars, asks him to fight alongside them.

and sapnap thinks of his country. thinks of his friends. thinks of his fiancés. thinks of george.

“are you going to fight with us?” tommy asks.

“i will.”

and tommy nods, and that’s the end of it.

* * *

“it’s just us,” george says one night. he’s on the sofa, and sapnap had thought he was asleep, had come in to make sure george hadn’t fallen asleep with his goggles on.

he nods, sits down next to him. “it is.”

george sighs, breathy. his voice sounds choked. sapnap wonders whether he feels anything, wonders what it’s like. he wraps an arm around him, buries his face in his hair.

sapnap is always angry. george is always calm.

and sapnap will carry his emotions.

“do you think somewhere, we’re happy? the three of us?”

“i do.”

and george doesn’t shrug, and that’s the end of it.

**Author's Note:**

> we are on sapnap lockdown!
> 
> i'm also writing a 5000+ word character study on schlatt coming in the next few days so if you're interested in that please stick around!
> 
> here's my [ ko-fi ](https://yaoyoyoyo.tumblr.com/post/623129308189327360/i-just-finished-setting-up-a-ko-fi-please-check)!  
> here's my [ information on writing commissions ](https://yaoyoyoyo.tumblr.com/post/631112745941712896/hello-ive-finally-decided-to-officially-open)!  
> here's my [ tumblr ](https://yaoyoyoyo.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> let me know if any of the links break, and i'll do my best to fix them!  
> please leave some comments, and i'm always, always open to constructive criticism :).


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